• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Country Life Experiment

Simple Country Living

  • Home
  • About
    • Start Here
    • FAQs
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
  • Food
    • Mains
    • Desserts
    • Cakes & Biscuits
    • Jams & Preserves
    • Snacks & Treats
    • Drinks
    • Food Hacks
    • Recipe List
  • Simple Living
    • Organisation
  • Garden
  • Country Life
  • Family Time
    • Kid Wrangling
  • DIY
    • Farm House
    • Crochet
    • Christmas

Doing Something Hard

Yesterday we went to Hannah’s school for the annual education week open day. Each student had to dress up in a costume from another country, then they had to stand up in front of everyone and say something about their country. Hannah wore a Chinese outfit that my sister had sent her (the blonde hair didn’t look terribly authentic). She also participated in a ‘cultural dance’, and then sang “walking on sunshine” with the whole school.

This might not seem like a big deal, but for Hannah it is. She finds people who she doesn’t know looking at her, incredibly stressful. She gets so stressed in new public situations, that she cannot talk. Often a stranger will talk to her to be friendly, and this makes it worse. She isn’t trying to to be rude, she just genuinely cannot make herself talk.

As her parent, I find this a struggle. Both Country Boy and I are introverted (CB more than me), so we understand where she is coming from, but at the same time we cannot protect her all her life. At some point she is going to have to talk to people she doesn’t know when we are not around. Although I know she is not trying to be rude, it is embarrassing when your child doesn’t respond to questions in public, and when she tries to hide behind you.

We are trying to give Hannah skills to cope with these situations. We encourage her to look at peoples forehead if she can’t meet their eyes, and to smile and wave a hand if she can’t actually speak. We try to talk about what we expect in terms of behaviour before we arrive, so that she is keyed up to know that she has to acknowledge people who talk to her. We try to remind her of people that she knows so that she will feel more relaxed.

We also try to avoid labelling her as ‘shy’. We say she finds meeting new people hard, or that she doesn’t like it when people look at her. I don’t want her to label herself as shy and give herself an excuse for not trying at all.

The funny thing is that amongst our family and close friends, Hannah is loud and talkative. Despite not liking people looking her, she is happy for me to take photos of her and put them on here.

Yesterday, I was so proud that she got up and spoke, and danced and sang, because she finds it so hard, and yet she did it anyway!

Let everyone know:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit

You should also check out...

Previous Post: « {Wordless Wednesday} Pics From Around The Farm
Next Post: Lamb Marking »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kim @ Extra Organised says

    August 3, 2012 at 8:20 am

    Hi, I've been enjoying your blog and wanted to leave a comment. I grew up in the country and reading your lovely blog brings back lots of good childhood memories!

    I understand what you are talking about in relation to Hannah. I was often this way as a child too, and unfortunately I was labelled as shy. This was a label that stuck with me until I was an adult and discovered a book called "The Highly Sensitive Person" by Elaine Aron. By reading this book, I learned all about sensitivity which is actually a wonderful personality trait that is definitely not shyness. It is associated with deep thinking and processing, and sometimes even with giftedness. It also means taking longer to adapt to new people and situations as there is so much stimuli to process!

    If you wanted to take a look at Elaine's web site, here is a link. She also has a questionnaire about sensitivity, and a book called "The Highly Sensitive Child".
    http://www.hsperson.com/

    Anyway, see what you think. It was such a relief to me to discover this when I did. I had never felt shy despite being labelled as such, and sensitivity makes so much sense when you learn about it. All the best, Kim.

    Reply
    • Jo says

      August 4, 2012 at 4:46 am

      Hi Kim! Thanks for reading along! Thank you too, for the recommendation. I will definitely look that book up!

      Reply
  2. Anne@GtSlamseysFarm says

    August 2, 2012 at 7:29 am

    Well done to Hannah for joining in. My niece was so painfully shy that she could hardly even speak to aunts and uncles, to the point that everyone began to think she was just rude. Then she went to uni, blossomed and came back self assured and a joy to be with.

    Reply

Have your say... Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Search

Browse by month

INSTAGRAM

Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is “of course not”. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…
A picture perfect Autumn afternoon to end the scho A picture perfect Autumn afternoon to end the school holidays. We’ve been busy spending time with friends and family, harvesting the last of the summer produce, as well as a short escape to explore the big smoke. After the craziness of last term it was the break we all needed. It’s back to school for me tomorrow, and the kids are back on Wednesday. Shearing starts soon and so it’s all systems go over the next few weeks.
Covid has made some late changes to our weekend pl Covid has made some late changes to our weekend plans so we are embracing the unexpected and doing not much at home. Plenty of time for hanging out on the dam and enjoy the perfect weather.

Newsletter

Popular Posts

Pickled Cucumbers
Pear And Ginger Paste
{Recipe} Spiced Plum Paste
Embossed Foil Christmas Stars
Pumpkin Fruit Cake
6 Ways To Live The Country Life... Even If You're Not In The Country!

Categories

Footer

Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress